Origin

The Spartans or Laconians of ancient Greece were known for their austere lifestyle and pithy speech. When Philip of Macedon threatened to invade Laconia in the 4th century bc, he wrote to its governing magistrates to try to frighten them into submission, saying that if he entered Laconia he would raze it to the ground. They are reported to have sent a one-word reply—‘If’. Since the 16th century laconic has meant ‘using very few words’. See also spartan

laconicism

His peculiar mix of laconicism and loquaciousness means that when he talks you tend to listen closely.

In the former category were the blunt epigrams of Otto Luening's Third Short Sonata, the graceful, playful modesty of Ibert's ‘Jeux’ and the altogether more wintry laconicism of Edison Denisov's Four Pieces for the two instruments.

In its starkness and simplicity, Dead Man returns to the crystalline laconicism of Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise; and though we may sense that this saga is essentially without hope, we are still wryly bemused and frequently amused.